I keep seeing this online and in person. I don't know how to respond
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"If Hamas used you as a shield, would you be okay with Israel shooting you?"
"If a bank robber uses hostages as a shield, would you be okay with police shooting the hostages?"
The other thing that Zionists pair with the human shields argument is saying that Hamas embeds itself into schools and hospitals so that Israel must attack schools and hospitals. Hamas is the governing military of Gaza, of course Hamas is going to be in schools and in hospitals. In the US, the US military is in US schools and US hospitals. In Israel, the IOF military is in Israel schools and Israel hospitals. Israel is not permitted to attack schools and hospitals even if Hamas is present.
"If a bank robber uses hostages as a shield, would you be okay with police shooting the hostages?"
IOF practice is more like dropping a bomb on the bank
"How barbaric for israelies to shoot anyway knowing there's innocents in the fire zone"
Shame them.
Agreed, but “shooting” implies they do most of their killing with bullets - single shots with limited collateral / a weapon designed to kill only what you point it at. but really they’re dropping hundreds of pounds of bombs on people and buildings, opting for means of destruction that annihilate everyone and everything closeby.
And that’s why we only ever see IOF militants fighting in the rubble of Gaza. They’re only brave enough to use bullets after they’ve killed as many people as possible with their bombs
oh good point. snipers to explode children's limbs, and bombs in case there's human shields. 
I guess that could be another callout too. Bombs don't have eyes to differentiate who is around so why drop in a populated area.
What would be the point of using human shields when the IOF has shown absolutely no hesitation in killing civilians anyways.
online
pig poop balls
in person
keep a stack of business cards with pig poop balls printed on them and hand them out to people with bad takes 
Using human shields implies that you don't have many years of evidence that said shields won't be shot straight through. The IDF doesn't even let Israeli hostages slow their butchering, much less any Palestinian. Anyone still saying the "human shields" bullshit to defend carpet bombing is deranged and probably not worth your time.
What evidence is there that Hamas is really using people as human shields?
... And weigh that against the mountains of evidence of israel's disregard for Palestinian life and wellbeing:
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Can they really claim "human shields" when israel is dropping bombs on densely populated areas? What about when they bomb refugee camps, clinics, hospitals, evacuation routes, or designated safe zones? Or when they drop bombs on members of Hamas in their family homes?
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What about the infants israel left dead and rotting in al-Shifa Hospital? And how israel couldn't produce any evidence that Hamas was actually using that hospital as a base?
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What about the israeli hostages crying for help and waving white flags that the IOF murdered?
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What about the mass starvation? The restriction of food, water, electricity, medicine, and other humanitarian aid? The repeated targetting of aid workers? Or the aid trucks blocked at the border, or worse, picked apart by israeli settlers? Does that not contradict the narrative that israel is only after Hamas?
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Oh, but the warning pamphlets! Like when israel tells the sick, starved, and traumatized Palestinians that they have 24 hours to walk 20km from one (former) safe zone to the next one, and then they start bombing them in 12 hours?
Any moral and honest person can see that israel has gone above and beyond to hurt as many Palestinians as possible - so why the fuck are these vague claims about "human shields" even taken seriously?
But what they're right? Maybe Hamas has taken (tens of) thousands of fellow Palestinians as human shields, so why can't israel produce any evidence of that? Why is israel restricting journalists or investigators from entering Gaza or the West Bank? Why are they repeatedly killing journalists? Surely, if what they say is true, it would benefit them to show what is happening, but instead they take every step to hide what is happening from everyone.
We all know how much libs like copy/pasted lists of evidence. I'm sure when that tactic is used against them, they will admit defeat 
Great list though
Ok, let's cut off internet in Gaza.
Ok, now let's cut off telephone towers that they'll be able to access.
Ok, now we'll give them pamphlets for safe zones, but they can only be accessed through a QR code.
In Finkelstein's "Gaza: An Inquest Into Its Martyrdom", he notes that have been investigations into the use of human shields by Hamas by orgs such as Amnesty. They found no evidence that Hamas used human shields. However, they did find evidence that the IDF used human shields.
Also, why would Hamas possibly use human "shields" when Israel have absolutely no qualms with killing civilians?
By not acknowledging the fascists who still support israel. They’ve already made their mind up
Ask them why the israeli Ministry of Defense, their military command and a legit target in a conflict, sits right in the middle of Tel Aviv, surrounded by civilian buildings.
Supporting Israel is basically like supporting Nazi Germany so I wouldn't worry about the opinions of people who want you to answer that.
i think videos of the iof using palestinians as human shields are fairly illustrative on this point
Yup. Before October 2023, the "human shields" in Palestine/israel discourse was mostly included coverage and outrage at the IOF for using Palestinians as human shields, for example, when raiding homes in the West Bank - outrage fueled by mountains of direct evidence that the IOF were in fact routinely using Palestinians as human shields.
edit: I was wrong about "mostly", whoops, still death to israel. they still slaughter civilians and use "human shields" as one of many tools in their "genocidal cry-bullying" toolbox.
The definitely not true. You can search back and find claims of palestine using human sheilds way back in 2002, but it really picked up in 2008ish. Amnesty International had to put out a statement in 2009 saying there was no evidence for the claim.
It just likely never came up in your personal news sources. And yes of course Israel has used Palestinians & children as human sheilds.
oh word, thanks for clarifying. i just remember when i was debating some redditor and restricted a google search to pre-2023, and there was a few reports from HRW or the UN that stuck out
I definitely remember the "human shields" discourse back in 2012 and 2014 being used to excuse Israel killing Palestinian civilians.
"if a criminal holed up in your house the army would be right to bomb your house and kill you"
I give thanks every day that Tomnald Jackoffson prevented the government from garrisoning shoplifters in my home
it's victim blaming, literally blaming the civilians for being in the way, but where the fuck else are they supposed to go?
They get pushed to rafah an then israel starts to bomb rafah. I guess they expect them to "turn on and give up hamas" but what if... what if there isn't any fucking hamas? what if israel is just bombing and demanding leaders who never existed, aren't there, or are already dead? and how is it the civilians' responsibility anyway when israel could simply not bomb them
The same people claiming that Hamas uses human shields in Gaza claimed the Taliban used human shields in Afghanistan, claimed Saddam used human shields in Iraq, claimed the Viet Cong used human shields in Vietnam, etc. It's just a "Look what you made me do" excuse for the occupying force killing innocent people.
It's worth looking at past times when Israel has used this argument. https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/special-sessions/session9/fact-finding-mission
The Mission’s attention has been drawn to a well-known incident in which women and children followed calls to gather on the roof of the house of a Palestinian man who had been informed by the Israeli authorities that his house would be targeted. This incident has been documented in video footage in the public domain and is referred to in submissions received by the Mission as evidence of the use of human shields. The Mission notes, however, that the incident occurred in 2007. No such incidents are alleged by the Israeli Government with regard to the military operations that began on 27 December 2008. The Mission received no reports of such incidents from other sources. On the contrary, in one case investigated by the Mission, a Hamas official received a phone call from the Israeli armed forces to the effect that his house would soon be targeted. He evacuated the house with his family and alerted the neighbours to the imminent threat so that they, too, were able to leave their homes before the missile did indeed strike
Finally, on this issue, it is relevant to mention that the Israeli Government has produced no visual or other evidence to support its allegation that Palestinian combatants “mingle routinely with civilians in order to cover their movements”.
- The Mission is unable to make any determination on the general allegation that Palestinian armed groups used mosques for military purposes. It notes that, in the one incident it investigated of an Israeli attack on a mosque, it found no indication that the mosque was so used.
- On the basis of the investigations it has conducted, the Mission did not find any evidence to support the allegations that hospital facilities were used by the Gaza authorities or by Palestinian armed groups to shield military activities and that ambulances were used to transport combatants or for other military purposes.
- On the basis of the information it gathered, the Mission found no indication that the civilian population was forced by Hamas or Palestinian armed groups to remain in areas under attack from the Israeli armed forces
And so on. Page 218 onwards, on the other hand, describes the IDF using Palestinians as human shields.
So what about since Oct. 7th? Here's Amnesty International's findings on the investigation of three strikes with heavy civilian casualties:
In all three cases, Amnesty International did not find any evidence that there had been any military targets in or around the locations targeted by the Israeli military, raising serious concerns that these attacks amount to direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects, which are war crimes. Israel has not provided any information about the attacks in Rafah, and has only provided general allegations, which it later contradicted, regarding the attack on al-Maghazi.
Meanwhile, there are numerous examples of Israelis using Palestinians as human shields. Marching Palestinians in front of them as they move into territory. Sending a Palestinian into a hospital to warn them to evacuate, and then shooting that same man dead when he left. We know that IDF operatives dressed as doctors and nurses and entered a civilian hospital to shoot patients in their bed. IN THE WEST BANK.
Are there Hamas installations in close proximity to civilian buildings? Gaza is one of most densely populated areas on earth, so it would be impossible for that not to be the case. But it also wouldn't be unusual, and there are IDF facilities near civilian buildings as well. My city has an army barracks in a fucking residential area, I suppose that justifies my liquidation in the event of a war then.
Because all this doesn't even touch on the fact that this argument is trotted out to justify the unjustifiable: "They were hiding amongst children, so we had to kill all the children"
An argument that is morally vacuous at best. Apply it to any other situation: "There was a shooting in a school so we bombed the school."
